The Dinnie Stones (also called Stanes or Steens) are a pair of Scottish

lifting stone Lifting stones are heavy natural stones which people are challenged to lift, proving their strength. They are common throughout northern Europe, particularly Scotland, Wales, Iceland (where they are referred to as ''steintökin''), Scandinavia an ...

s located in

Potarch Potarch ( ) is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with a bridge across the River Dee, Aberdeenshire, River Dee. It is a popular location with tourists and day-trippers, and has a hotel. The Dinnie Stones are kept at the Potarch ...

, Aberdeenshire. They were made famous by

strongman In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. Thes ...

Donald Dinnie Donald Dinnie (10 July 1837 – 2 April 1916) was a Scottish strongman, born at Balnacraig, Birse, near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. Sometimes regarded as "The Nineteenth Century's greatest athlete", Dinnie's athletic car ...

, who reportedly carried the stones barehanded across the width of the Potarch Bridge, a distance of , in 1860. They remain in use as lifting stones. The stones are composed of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

, with iron rings affixed. They have a combined weight of , with the larger stone weighing and the smaller stone weighing . The stones were reportedly selected in the 1830s as counterweights for use in maintaining the Potarch Bridge. They were lost following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but were rediscovered in 1953 by David P. Webster. Replicas of the Dinnie Stones (pioneered by Gordon Dinnie) have been used in international competition.

World Records

The ultimate challenge is to replicate the 1860 performance of Donald Dinnie, by walking the original stones (heavier stone to be gripped from the front and the lighter stone from the back) over the historical distance of 5.22 m with the allowance of dropping the stones down and lifting again (if the re-attempt is within 10 seconds). Only seven individuals (all men) have been recorded as matching this feat (unassisted without using any weightlifting straps), including Donald Dinnie's father Robert Dinnie. At one time, the feat went unrepeated for 113 years, until Northern Irishsman Jack Shanks did so on 3rd June 1973. , more than 220 individuals have managed to lift the stones off the ground (also known as ''putting the wind under the stones'', i.e. just lifting/not walking with them).

David Prowse David Charles Prowse (1 July 1935 – 28 November 2020) was an English actor, bodybuilder and weightlifter. He portrayed Darth Vader (voiced by American actor James Earl Jones) in the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy and a manservant in Stanle ...

was the first to do so assisted (with straps) in October, 1963. Jack Shanks (1972), Syd Strachan, Jim Splaine, Imlach Shearer (1973) and Jim Fraser (1978) all managed to lift them unassisted (raw grip). Four women have also managed to lift the stones. The first was

Jan Todd Janice Todd (''née'' Suffolk; born May 22, 1952) is a Professor and Interim Department Chair (starting August, 2022) in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Todd is a member of the Sport Managem ...

in 1979, a feat which was not matched by any woman for the next 39 years until Leigh Holland-Keen in 2018 (both assisted with straps). In January 2019, Emmajane Smith lifted the stones without straps, making her the first woman to do so, and in June 2019, Finland's Annika Eilmann lifted the stones without straps and held the stones for over 10 seconds. Jim Splaine was the first person to lift the Dinnie Stones more than fifty times, a feat he went on to achieve 67 times from 1973 to 1990. Most of those lifts were done at a body weight of only 65 kg (143 lb). Brett Nicol holds the world record for lifting the Dinnie Stones for the most number of times, with 460 lifts from 2008 to date. The record for holding the stones up unassisted for the longest time is 46.30 seconds, set on 18 May 2019 by Mark Haydock of Lancashire, England. This record was first introduced at the Aboyne Highland Games in 2016, and the first holder of the record was James Gardner. Another feat of strength is to pick up the stones from the sides and walk them in a farmers walk style carry until dropping them. This record, with the original stones, is held by

Laurence Shahlaei Laurence Cristiaan David Shahlaei (born 25 December 1982) is an English YouTuber, strength sports commentator, analyst, coach, and a retired strongman and powerlifting competitor. Shahlaei is a winner of England's Strongest Man, Britain's St ...

, with a distance of . It was previously held by

Brian Shaw Brian Keith Shaw (born March 22, 1966) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He could play both guard positions, but wa ...

, who carried them . However, this record was surpassed during 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic in the United States, albeit with replica Dinnie stones (weighing the exact same as the original) by American Kevin Faires, who carried the stones on 6 March 2022 at the Rogue Record Breakers event within the competition.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , title=Gladiators star smashes Dinnie Stones record , url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-43961606 , access-date=13 February 2019 , work=

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, date=1 May 2018 {{cite web , title=The Dinnie Stones: The Ultimate Challenge , last=Shanks , first=Steven , website=ThedinnieStones.com , url=http://www.thedinniestones.com/ , access-date=12 February 2019 {{cite web , title=Listed below are the names and details of lifters who have carried the stones unassisted , url=http://www.thedinniestones.com/Successful%20Carry%20Unassisted.html , website=ThedinnieStones.com , access-date=13 February 2019 {{cite web , title=Listed below are the names and details of lifters who have put the wind under the stones unassisted , url=http://www.thedinniestones.com/Successful%20Lifts%20Unassisted.html , website=ThedinnieStones.com , access-date=13 February 2019 {{cite news , last1=Saner , first1=Emine , title=A short guide to becoming seriously strong – by the woman who just lifted 332.5kg boulders , url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/aug/07/short-guide-strong-woman-lifted-332-5kg-dinnie-stones-scotland , access-date=13 February 2019 , newspaper=

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, date=August 7, 2018 {{cite news, url=http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/16268461.World_record_Dinnie_Stone_lift_smashed_by_strongman, last=Athey, first=Neil, title=World record Dinnie Stone lift smashed by strongman, newspaper=

Lancashire Telegraph The ''Lancashire Telegraph'', formerly the ''Lancashire Evening Telegraph'', is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It is edited by Karl Holbrook. There are around twenty towns in the area, including Blackburn, ...

, date=6 June 2018, access-date=8 August 2018 {{cite news , last1=Dingwall , first1=Blair , title=Dinnie Steen challenge to take centre stage at Arnold Schwarzenegger's US strongman festival , url=https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/1143352/dinnie-steen-challenge-to-take-centre-stage-at-arnold-schwarzeneggers-us-strongman-festival/ , access-date=13 February 2019 , newspaper= The Press and Journal , date=18 January 2017 {{Cite web, url=http://www.thedinniestones.com/Lifters%20Pages/Emmajane%20Smith.html, title=Emmajane Smith, website=Thedinniestones.com, access-date=9 November 2021 Stones Sport in Aberdeenshire Tourist attractions in Aberdeenshire History of Aberdeenshire Weightlifting in Scotland Highland games in Scotland Lost objects

World Records

See also

References